Chapter 14: Full Throttle, Out of the Corner!

...

“This mecha girl’s pretty fast...”

Derek Su looked into the rearview mirror. He’d assumed their launch control start would give them enough of a lead, but clearly, that wasn’t the case.

The other side looked fully prepared. Whether it was changing the starting order or deliberately provoking them, it was obvious they’d come looking for trouble.

“She’s an XC-76,” Stella continued. “She debuted a year ago with a first-place performance and joined a very good club. She’s strong—and mecha girls of the XC family are naturally gifted in straight-line speed.”

“The XC family?”

“Yep, Master. You can think of us as being the same type of mecha girl.”

Derek Su froze. So it was like automotive brands? In his previous life, despite different logos, big car brands all had unmistakable signature features—“like BMW’s kidney grille—instantly recognizable at a glance.”

“So compared to XC-76, your speed advantage might be gone?”

“Probably. She won’t be that much slower than me.”

Derek Su frowned. Could that mecha also have a special ability like the [Sovereign Engine]?

If so, today’s training race might get dangerous.

Even on long straight sections, he didn’t dare push Stella to full throttle. He knew exactly how terrifying her max speed was—a monster he couldn’t fully control. If he tried cornering at full throttle, he’d have no choice but to take his hands off the wheel, close his eyes, and pray to the heavens for an intact corpse.

In the mirror, Stella’s pursuer was no longer fully visible behind them—she was already pulling up from the right side.

“Master!” Stella’s anxious voice rang beside his ear.

Derek Su knew she hated being passed by XC-76.

“Don’t panic. Let her overtake.”

“Master, I… I can still accelerate…”

“I know. But think about the corner. The first turn at Banag Valley is an uphill cliff with no guardrail. You have to keep that in mind. If we fall, we won’t have any chance of climbing back.”

Stella bit down, swallowing her frustration. She knew Derek Su was right.

She only hated herself for not practicing more. Why did she slack off the night before?
If she had trained as hard that night as she did yesterday, would she handle the curves better?

Only Derek Su knew the answer—no.

He could see her stats clearly. Yesterday’s improvement was actually significant: her Cornering attribute had risen by 0.4, now at 22.5. But that was still far from enough for proper cornering. Based on his calculations, to match normal racecar standards from his previous life, her Cornering needed to reach at least 60—and that was only a relatively safe value. Stella’s speed couldn’t be judged by ordinary racecar metrics.

...

“Master, we’ve overtaken that vehicle,” Comet said flatly.

Caio Yang checked his rearview mirror. “Isn’t that normal? At full throttle, your speed leaves most mecha girls in the dust.”

“The first turn is coming up—uphill into a right turn, a three-quarter circular curve.”

“I’m slowing down.” Caio Yang nodded.

In his mind, cornering always meant decelerating. The difference between a pro and a newbie was that pros fully utilized the width and length of the curve and calculated the critical speed exactly. Sounded simple—but get it wrong and you either lose speed and get overtaken, or slam into a barrier or fly off the track.

Caio Yang was long past beginner circuits like Knox.

His goal now was national competitions—and one day, the world stage—taking Comet with him to become world-class.

Even if Comet didn’t have any special abilities, it didn’t matter. As a Techmaster, he could compensate for her weaknesses.

Critical cornering calculations came purely from track experience—and he had more than enough.

“So, when are you slowing?” Caio Yang glanced at the mirror, seeing Derek Su and Stella still right behind them.

The moment Comet began decelerating, Derek Su shifted Stella’s position and surged forward. The two mecha girls were suddenly side by side.

Caio Yang glanced over in shock. Through the window, Derek Su sat with a cold, expressionless face, eyes locked on the track.

He wasn’t slowing down.
And with the engine’s furious roar behind them, Stella shot ahead again.

“Are they insane? They’re not slowing down? There’s a cliff ahead!”

“Just stubbornness. They’re immature.” Comet snorted. “But it works out. If she crashes, the XC-99 goes straight to the Recycling Yard. The cliff at Banag Valley’s first turn isn’t fatal. If she goes all out to save that man, he won’t die—but he’ll spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.”

Suddenly, the sharp scream of brakes tore through the air.

The sound sent chills down Caio Yang’s and Comet’s spines.

Then they saw something they would never forget.

Ahead of them, Stella—already six or seven car lengths in front—suddenly shifted her angle. Her rear end snapped outward as she entered the turn. The terrifying inertia dragged the tires sideways, carving bright sparks and four searing black streaks across the ground. The air filled with the harsh stench of burning rubber.

“W-what is that?” Caio Yang swallowed hard.

Comet couldn’t speak—only a sharp gasp escaped her.

Inside Stella’s cockpit, Derek Su glanced at the mirror, hands steady as he rotated the steering wheel. Stella’s nose aligned perfectly at a ninety-degree tangent to the curve, rear wheels locked. Only after drifting almost 270 degrees around the turn—when her chassis aligned with the straightaway—did the downshifted gear ratio finally unleash the engine module’s explosive torque.

“Full throttle—out of the corner!”

Stella’s accelerator slammed to the floor.

The tires clawed the asphalt, gaining traction instantly. Within a second, her speed matched her entry velocity.

The full-speed drift flowed like water, and Stella shot out like a wild stallion, sprinting over a hundred meters in a flash.

Behind them, Caio Yang and Comet were only just exiting the curve.

“Whooo! Master, I feel like we can win!” Stella cheered.

As XC-76 tried to accelerate again, the distance between them had already widened drastically.

Sure, XC-76 could still try to catch up—but Stella had seen Derek Su pull off miracles in cornering more than once. With a few more turns, wouldn’t XC-76 be left eating dust?

“You’re feeling exactly what I’m feeling.”

Derek Su chuckled and patted Stella’s head.

With her Cornering now at 22.5, Stella was still difficult to handle, but compared to the previous attribute of 7, it was a huge improvement. Before, drifting felt like she could lose control at any moment. Now, at least he could sense when she was on the verge of spinning out.

If that arrogant driver and sharp-tongued mecha girl behind them only had that much ability…

They had this training race in the bag.

But just as that thought crossed Derek Su’s mind, thunder cracked across the sky.

Stella flinched, her chassis trembling.

“Master… do you think… it’s going to rain today?” she whispered weakly.

Derek Su’s hair stood on end. He smacked Stella’s rear.

“Don’t jinx it!!”